      The Nebraska Legislature’s Judiciary Committee has recommended confirmation of Rob Jeffreys as the new head of the Dept of Correctional Services, a job he began Monday.
The 7-0 vote on Wednesday followed the confirmation hearing for Jeffreys.
      Nebraska’s prison system is the most over-crowded in the country at 150% of capacity, but Jeffreys told the committee in his hearing that he can’t talk in detail at this time about any changes he’d like to make.
      The Legislature’s been split in recent years on the prison issue with some members backing options to incarceration and others wanting to build a new prison to replace the century-old State Penitentiary – a project whose price tag has jumped from $250-to-$350-million in the past year.Â
Asked where he stands on the dispute, Jeffreys said he agrees with both sides.    Â
Jeffreys also said he was not planning on involving himself in the legislature’s long-running debate on sentencing reform.
       Jeffreys was director of the Illinois prison system when picked by Gov Jim Pilled, and before that spent most of a decade as a corrections consultant and over 30 years working at all levels of the Ohio corrections system.